Sunday, March 6, 2016

Why This Teacher Supports Sanders for President

Every political cycle is a sad reminder that public education in general and teachers in particular are political orphans. Neither party even pretends to be interested in or supportive of traditional public education and the people who work in that sector. Where once upon a time, kissing a baby could be reliably followed by thanking America's teachers. Now both traditional parties just want to punch us in the face.

None of the 147 Presidential candidates at any point showed any concern about making nice with teachers or standing up to the institution to which we have devoted our lives, the institution which is the very foundation of our country, our democracy.











No, not even Bernie. We've been able to get him to cough up a couple of usable quotes that would suggest that he's a fan of teachers and public education, which puts him ahead of Hillary who bent over backwards to avoid letting one sentence worth of charter school criticism upset any of her deep pocketed backers [but even at Sunday night's debate, given a chance to directly address education and educator issues, he punted]. Pretty sure I missed the part where she dispatched Bill to reassure public school teachers that any of her zillion pro-charter comments were no cause for alarm. And the closest that any GOP candidate came to saying something nice about teachers was that time John Kasich said that he would abolish teacher lunch rooms, which sounds mean but, hey-- at least he didn't say he would abolish letting teachers have lunch at all.

If I were a one-issue voter, a candidate who voted his job, I'd have a choice between  a symbolic for D. Jill Stein or just staying home.

Let's not kid ourselves. In the political world, nobody has our collective backs.

But I'm not a single-issue voter. Well, actually, I am. But it's a bigger issue than public education, even though it's the same issue.

My issue is democracy.

Sanders doesn't talk much about education, and I don't get the impression that it's something he's really studied up on or fully grasped.

But he talks a great deal about the ways in which our democracy has been stripped from us, eroded by the toxic spread of big money as the very rich buy up our government, our processes, and, almost without exception, our candidates for major offices.

This ongoing attempt to milk the taxpayers while stripping them of their voices, their say, their ability to help steer the national bus-- that is the problem that, right now, is virtually all problems. The dismantling of our public education, our selling off of the pieces, our transformation of universal public education into a system that serves the needs of only a few, a system that enriches the already-rich while trying to get away with training many young citizens to be nothing more than drones, fodder for their corporate overlords-- that grand perversion of public education is mirrored in the co-opting of our food industry, our military industry, our decaying cities, our twisted political system, our money-sucking health care system.

I care, obviously, about our public education system, about the teaching profession, about the care and nurture of our young people. But I am also aware that the gutting of public education is a symptom of a larger problem, like a shirt that keeps getting bloody because it's being worn by a person with a knife driven deep into his chest. And I can live with somebody who's not too concerned about the shirt if he's focused on removing the knife and healing the wound.

We have candidates who want to punch the shirt-wearer for bleeding all over the place. We have candidates who want to "solve" the problem by putting a different shirt on a different person. And we have more than a few candidates who owe their allegiance to the knife manufacturer and will never do anything with that knife except to drive it in deeper and maybe twist it a little.

I'm concerned about the shirt, and the blood. Sanders is not paying so much attention to the shirt, but he is totally on point about the knife and the wound and the need to draw the weapon out and heal the breach.

To be less metaphorical, education is not anybody's issue-- including Sanders. But the toxic rot and corruption that he rails against in the country is the same toxic rot that is eating at public education. I can get behind that. I'm not a naive kid, and I don't expect miracles. But I can get behind a man who at least talks about the knife and the wound. That's why this teacher supports Bernie Sanders.

10 comments:

  1. You are absolutely correct. I fought against the NEA endorsement of Clinton and I know many people who are against the NEA and AFT endorsements

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  2. The teacher is correct. I fought against the NEA endorsement of Clinton and I am aware of many NEA and AFT members who feel we were sold out by the leadership when they endorsed Clinton.

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  3. Wonderfully said, Mr. Greene. Thank you.

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  4. This is one of your best paragraphs: "This ongoing attempt to milk the taxpayers while stripping them of their voices, their say, their ability to help steer the national bus-- that is the problem that, right now, is virtually all problems. The dismantling of our public education, our selling off of the pieces, our transformation of universal public education into a system that serves the needs of only a few, a system that enriches the already-rich while trying to get away with training many young citizens to be nothing more than drones, fodder for their corporate overlords-- that grand perversion of public education is mirrored in the co-opting of our food industry, our military industry, our decaying cities, our twisted political system, our money-sucking health care system."

    I plan to vote for Bernie as well for these sorts of reasons.

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  5. Thank you Peter. Love the metaphor, appreciate the reality.

    Gabriel Dickey, Boston MA

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  6. What I noticed Sunday night was that when Clinton was asked point blank if unions made it difficult to fire teachers, she said "It's something that should be looked at".

    I think more than trying not to answer, Bernie said what he did because he wanted to make sure he interjected his policy on free public college at some point. I wish Anderson had also asked him the question again point blank, but at least we know he's very pro union.

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  7. If Bernie becomes President, I would love to see if some of the BATs like Steven M. Singer (gadflyonthewall)could get an audience with him so he could thoroughly understand what's going on. I'd certainly trust Steven to represent me (a LOT more than I would either of the union presidents.)

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  8. For me it comes down to Sanders or protest vote for Jill Stein. I don't care that Democrats will say "think about the supreme court; you can't let the republicans run the court." Well, I am sick of a rightest movement that looks reasonable when compared to the uber-right.

    I like your take.

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  9. Mr. Greene,

    I look forward to reading or re-reading your blog every day. I forward articles to all my teacher pals. Thanks for expressing your views so eloquently and clearly.

    I have to agree with you about Bernie. I don't think he has much of a chance, but there's not really any candidate.

    I don't trust Clinton. I wish that she didn't have to shout every times she speaks in public.

    You will not agree with me about this, but among the Republican candidates, the only candidate who actually says what they believe is Trump. Of course, Most of what he says is reprehensible. Cruz is worse. Ted is the Anti-Christ all "growled up." If you look behind his right ear, you will see the "666" tattoo. The USA would be in worse shape if he gets in the White House. Rubio is out of it now anyway and Kasich doesn't have a chance either.

    Trump still thinks he's on a Reality TV show. Last week, when that fat pig of a governor Christie "threw the weight of his support" to The Donald was a surreal moment. Last year, you would have thought that things would have evolved into this mess?

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    1. I don't know that Trump says what he believes; I think it's more that he just sounds like he does. He's contradicted himself and flip-flopped so much that I have no idea what he actually thinks. He also has said zero on how he would do anything. So to me what he would do is a complete mystery and completely unpredictable.

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